Gauke Zijlstra - Municipality of Dronten
Gauke Zijlstra, City Manager, Municipality of Dronten (now interim manager and consultant)
"When I chose to focus on my own work situation during a course I took on leadership, I was confronted with my management style and with the approach that I had chosen for change processes. It turned out that the Municipality of Dronten needed an intervention that would enhance the development of the organization.
By means of the Change Monitor and – no less important – with the efforts of Kilian Bennebroek Gravenhorst, I was able to find the energy we needed in our quest for the rationale and purpose of the changes. As so often, it was 'the top' that had felt a sense of urgency. But where and how deeply rooted was the resistance to the change? And how would we be able to put that into perspective and deal with it?
For us, the Change Monitor was a brilliant and highly useful intervention. It turned out to be anything but an employee (dis)satisfaction survey. Instead, it offered employees and the Works Council a perfect opportunity to make a constructive, critical and concrete contribution to the discussion about the quality of the change process.
The fact that employees were called on to take on responsibility for themselves was a surprising element. Tensions were made visible, but they were also put into perspective. The intervention challenged us as managers to expose our vulnerability. The process began to 'flow' once again.
Sometimes you need an intervention to be able invest in quality yourself, together with your own organization and with your own employees. I found the Change Monitor to be the perfect instrument at a crucial moment."